Organizational Goals and the Decision-Making of Air Force Staff Officers: A Behavioral Experiment
Abstract
This study investigates some specific aspects of a general question: How is the decision-making behavior of an organization's middle-level managers influenced by the relative importance its senior executives place upon organizational goals? Although the belief that middle-level managers should incorporate the relative importance their senior executives place upon the organization's goals into their own decision-making seems widespread, little empirical evidence exists to indicate the degree to which this actually occurs in real organizations. In this study, empirical evidence relating to this question is gathered from within a large military organization. The results of a behavioral experiment in which the experimental decision-making task utilized five weighted organizational goals as decision criteria are examined. Air Force officers who were assigned to middle-level positions as members of the headquarters staff of a major Air Force command served as the experimental subjects.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 15, 1975
- Accession Number
- ADA026268
Entities
People
- Adrian M. Harrell
Organizations
- Air Force Institute of Technology